Umbilical Cord Blood Donation

Your cord blood may particularly valuable for Devan, especially if it is from a child of mixed South-Asian/European heritage.

UPDATE: It is possible that we may, if necessary, be able to use privately banked cord blood from mixed S. Asian / Caucasian individuals. Please enter your contact information here if you are interested in donating privately banked cord blood. Please note the following:

We cannot use just a portion of existing privately banked cord blood.

Due to the time constraints, we will not be able to reply to individuals with non mixed-heritage cord blood. We thank you ahead of time for your generosity.

However, if you are pregnant with a child of mixed South Asian / Caucasian heritage, and are interested in donating your child’s cord blood, please read below for information on donating the cord blood after delivery. There is no risk of harm to either the mother or baby by collecting cord blood, which is normally discarded.

USA

If you would like to donate the cord blood from a child you are expecting, first please note the following:

You must not be more than 34 weeks into the pregnancy.

You must be delivering a single baby

It must be an uncomplicated pregnancy.

You cannot donate if you have had hepatitis or HIV, or if the mother, the father, or a sibling of the baby has had cancer.

If you happen to be delivering at a hospital that already collects cord blood for the public registry,

please contact the public cord bank that works with your hospital, and discuss this with your obstetrician. These hospitals have staff dedicated to this purpose. However, due to limited funding, very few hospitals in the USA have public banks.

Here is a listing of hospitals with public cord banks that contribute to the national registry:

If your hospital is not listed, please enter your contact information here to inquire about the possibility of arranging to send a cord blood donation to a public bank. We apologize that we may not respond to every offer, as we must prioritize the donations with the highest potential of match. We thank you ahead of time for your generosity.

UK

The UK has an excellent Cord Blood Bank and Database, however, only 6 hospitals in the UK are allowed to publicly collect and store cord blood. If you do not give birth at one of these hospitals, you can arrange to privately collect and bank your cord blood for your family’s use. Due to very strict regulations on the handling of human tissue, it is not possible to deliver at, say Birmingham or Manchester, and have the cord blood collected and sent to one of the NHS Cord Bank hospitals. The only exception to this rule is where a sibling may be in need of the cord blood.

The cord bank database is made up of 60% Caucasian and 40% non-Caucasian donors.

NHS Hospitals collecting and storing cord blood:

-Barnet Hospital (Hertfordshire)

-Northwick Park Hospital (NW London)

-Luton & Dunstable Hospital (Bedfordshire)

-Watford General Hospital (Hertfordshire)

-St Georges Hospital (London)

The Anthony Nolan Trust also operates its own cord blood collection and storage facility at King’s College Hospital, London